Turkey Locator, How important is it and how effective???

[Gunman21]

Ive been turkey hunting for about 2 years and i hear alot about turkey locators such as owl calls and crow calls. Just curious how effective they really are and what should i get? Thanks.

[guesswho]

I rarely use them.  Usually the natural crows and owls do a pretty good job in the mornings around here.  If I do use one it would be an owl early and a crow or hawk later in the morning. 

[pseshooter300]

Ya I use a owl to try to get one to gobble early in the AM if I don't here them gobbling crow later in the morning even use the wood pecker

[Eric Gregg]

I like to use a hoot owl early in the morning. Where I hunt there are a lot of owls that live around the area and I like to get them fired up.
They end up doing the work for me.

[El Pavo Grande]

I rarely use them.  Usually the natural crows and owls do a pretty good job in the mornings around here.  If I do use one it would be an owl early and a crow or hawk later in the morning. 

X2.  I usually let the early morning progress at it's own pace.  I would say I very rarely use them at anytime, but they can be effective.  I think the key is not over doing it.

[WildTigerTrout]

 The only locator call I use much is the crow call and then only sparingly. I listen to the REAL crows first to see if a gobbler will go off. If they don't go off on a real crow what good is it to use a call. One call I will NOT use is a coyote.  I will use a turkey call as a last resort.

[Eric Gregg]

The only locator call I use much is the crow call and then only sparingly. I listen to the REAL crows first to see if a gobbler will go off. If they don't go off on a real crow what good is it to use a call. One call I will NOT use is a coyote.  I will use a turkey call as a last resort.

Yeah, you gotta watch what type of call you use....may get a yote instead

[WildTigerTrout]

The only locator call I use much is the crow call and then only sparingly. I listen to the REAL crows first to see if a gobbler will go off. If they don't go off on a real crow what good is it to use a call. One call I will NOT use is a coyote.  I will use a turkey call as a last resort.

Yeah, you gotta watch what type of call you use....may get a yote instead

IMO a coyote call scares them and shuts them up, at least here in my little part of Pennsylvania. I don't think the Old Gobbler wants to sound off with a coyote lurking about.

[El Pavo Grande]

The only locator call I use much is the crow call and then only sparingly. I listen to the REAL crows first to see if a gobbler will go off. If they don't go off on a real crow what good is it to use a call. One call I will NOT use is a coyote.  I will use a turkey call as a last resort.

Yeah, you gotta watch what type of call you use....may get a yote instead

IMO a coyote call scares them and shuts them up, at least here in my little part of Pennsylvania. I don't think the Old Gobbler wants to sound off with a coyote lurking about.

Great point.  I won't use one.  Trying to get one to gobble in the evening...maybe.  Around here, we have way too many coyotes.  You might get a shock gobble on the roost in the morning, but it will do more harm than good in my opinion.  I think our overabundance of predators, such as coyotes has altered the gobbling activity the last few years.  It's survival mode. 

[mossy835]

Where I hunt the guide uses a crow call to locate turkeys and I have watched that work for him but so did his box call the next day. Still learning, good posts.

[ghillie]

I rarely use them.  Usually the natural crows and owls do a pretty good job in the mornings around here.  If I do use one it would be an owl early and a crow or hawk later in the morning. 

X2

[ctwny1]

I use an owl call in the early AM and then around 9am a crow call. Here where I hunt we have a lot of geese and a lot of times as these Canada Geese are flying out to feed, you can't hear a gobber gobble unless he standing on your head.

[chatterbox]

Primos peacock call does a very good job to get them to shock gobble.
I was hunting  late season on heavily hunted public land last spring, and it was quite quiet. I gave one series on the peacock call, and one thundered off the roost.
I think there are too many variables to what will work and what won't work. In an area that has a high owl population, ol' tom might ignore them.
I can't run a crow call to save my bacon. Whenever I do it, it sounds like a joybuzzer on steroids!
I think that early in the breeding cycle, they will gobble to almost anything. Later on it gets tougher.
Like some sigs say on here,"Adapt and Kill."

[Ol'Mossy]

I don't use locator calls I just stand along a road somewhere and listen for about 20 minutes

[Neill_Prater]

This kind of goes along with the post Guesswho made about roosting birds. There was a time, when I started turkey hunting here in the 70's, that it was easy to get a gobble using a gobble call, even after flydown ( I know, but there weren't many hunters, and it was private land). Now, that is basically a waste of time.

Then, for many years, I located, and subsequently killed, probably a couple of dozen birds at least, using an old no-name crow call I have that is quite loud. I rarely used it early, but if I didn't hear a bird on the roost I often would after hearing some real crows sound off, or, more importantly, later in the morning.

Now, now being the past few years, I rarely use the same call anymore strictly as a locator, because I just got tired of blowing the damned thing and not hearing anything, especially when I'm hunting in the South. I don't know if others have noticed this or not, but in my experience, birds just don't seem to shock gobble nearly as easily as they did 3 decades ago. I have no clue as to why not, but I honestly don't believe they do. In some ways, it is a plus, because we all know a bird that shock gobbles isn't necessarily receptive to calling in, so if you do hear a gobbler sound off on his own, it is probably more likely you will be able to seal the deal. Neill